Just Like Her Father
by Rainstorm Amaya Arianrhod
Summary: ... and her mother, too. Twenty years of Ellimere's life. Because why does the unconventional, angsty little brother have to get all the attention, anyway? ONESHOT.


**A/N**: Ellimere, from zero to twenty. A twentyyears challenge. **_Please review!_**

**Disclaimer**: _Not_ mine.

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**0-born amongst golden silks and plots**

Ellimere was born on a sunny day, and a lot of courtiers toasted her arrival in the gardens, with good wine and sweetmeats for the occasion, in the conspicuous absence of the King, the Queen and the new princess. And Sabriel might be almost Ancelstierran and Touchstone might have spent a good deal of time encased in a figurehead in Holehallow, but Ellimere, her new Charter mark quiescent on her forehead and sleeping in her mother's arms, is all Old Kingdom and new and astonishingly tiny, and yes, her parents are _totally_ besotted.

Sabriel, however, is not so besotted that she is ready to believe that the pretty silk dress her Ellie looks so lovely in is as right for a baby as something rather plainer and more comfortable, and it does not take long for the ladies-in-waiting to find this out.

5- **trained to be a breathing doll**

"Stand up straight!" the lady-in-waiting encourages. "Regal face, princess! Just as I taught you! Yes, don't you look lovely! Oh, you'll break hearts, you'll break hearts…"

Sabriel has excellent hearing, and as a matter of fact was just passing by in order to make sure that her daughter was well. She might have been tired from soothing little Sam out of whooping cough, and the wound she was recovering from, but not so tired that when she heard the lady speak to Ellimere that she could not sprint the length of the corridor, the spelled door flying open to her hand, and snap "my daughter is _five_, she has no need to break hearts!" She seizes Ellimere's solid weight up, balancing her on one hip, and walks more sedately to her and Touchstone's rooms. Where she promptly breaks down in tears, not just because she doesn't want her daughter to have to act like that and think like that, but because she's pulled her stitches with that sprinting.

Touchstone enters the rooms, having seen Sam settled for the night, and is surprised to find his wife sobbing and clutching her stitches, and his daughter howling in sympathy.

10- **pressure! pushing down on me**

School, though Ellimere would never admit it to her mother, is kind of scary. The way that some other girls look at her with a little awe (_look, that's Sabriel's daughter_!) and others look down on her, because she's from the Old Kingdom and yokels like that are to be pitied; the way that teachers expect great things of her, especially in Charter magic and fencing, because her mother did great things. Fortunately for her father, who gets her quiet confidences at the end of terms and the little phrases that make him wish his little girl could stay in the Kingdom, Ellimere responds well to pressure. She takes on every single challenge. She makes friends and becomes one of the most popular girls in the school; she becomes such a bright beacon of… of what? Popularity? …that the scoffers and the naysayers can't help but at least be on amiable terms with her, even if she is from the Old Kingdom. Her teachers get the great things they expect, and enough courtesy and respect for the rules to make her well-spoken of in the staffroom.

So she stops confiding in her father, and starts to arrange matters to her satisfaction. Touchstone is certain, then, that his decision to name Ellimere Crown Princess was correct. After all, if you can manage a bunch of pre-teenage schoolgirls, with many snobs and the odd malcontent, you can certainly deal with a kingdom.

15- **cannot be locked in your ivory tower **

You can't just stay at home if you're a princess. No, when there's a party being held, fifteen-year-old Crown Princess Ellimere (see how tall she's getting? And look, she's going to look just like the Abhorsen, but see her smile- doesn't she look just like His Majesty now? Isn't she beautiful, and so poised for such a young girl! Did you see her ride in the hunt last week? Wasn't she a miracle to watch?) is an indispensable guest. She'll talk to a shy debutante and literally make her social career, introduce her to all the right people- who'll be kind, because Princess Ellimere is smiling that other smile, and this one looks just like her father's, too. It doesn't threaten. It just suggests that cooperation is a very good idea.

She'll make sparkling conversation, be the life and soul of the party, know everyone and everything and all the latest gossip, even though she's only fifteen, because she's Princess Ellimere. She'll dance with anyone, and be socially graceful and very polite and discreet about stepping on their feet –hard; she is her father's daughter- if they try to take liberties.

King Touchstone I is an observant man, more or less, and when he spots the huge dark circles under his daughter's eyes he absolutely forbids her to go to any parties for another fortnight. The first night she gets to miss a party, she revels in getting to sleep in till almost noon, and thanks her father profusely as soon as she's had bre- lunch.

20- **catch you up in every mistake**

It's funny, isn't it, that you only realise what you had when you don't have it any more? Once Wyverley College got used to her, the Head Girl (because you can't say no to having such a graceful air of authority in a position to tell girls what to do) and the Princess, with her cute cricketer brother and her advanced Charter magic, it was really quite a forgiving environment, and comfortingly structured. And if she got sick, Sister and the other girls looked after her because she was Ellie, not because she was their princess. It makes a huge difference, somehow, and Ellimere misses Ancelstierrean ways, the accents and the lessons and the way a cup of tea is the cure for everything.

The fact that they're unlikely to have heard about the Destroyer, and the fact that she was there, that she fought, would also be a bonus.

So she's grateful for Francis's company. He and his Scouts won't be around for long; they have to journey on to the Clayr's Glacier, to learn about Charter magic and the Kingdom. But he's a good dancer, and a good listener who's guaranteed not to ask about Orannis because he was there too. Although it's just conceivable that he'll forget her among the pretty, clever Daughters of the Clayr, what with the way he smiles at her with those dark blue eyes she doesn't think he will.

She knows it's not for long, and maybe it's not for real, but she's grateful for a dance partner who won't stand on her feet and a companion who isn't just waiting for her to make a mistake.


End file.
